No, BBC Radio 1 Didn’t Jump Back Into A Dance Track After The Queen’s Death Announcement
A similar prank happened after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in April.
A viral video is doing the rounds of BBC Radio 1’s emergency broadcast interruption announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.
But, lo and behold, it wasn’t fully accurate. The short clip buzzing around shows a Radio 1 Dance track being cut into with a short note about the late monarch’s passing, before getting right back into the tunes.
IM LOSING IT pic.twitter.com/gdgK0bKqvJ
— blods (@b1odeuwedd) September 8, 2022
While the announcement did come during one of DJ’s Pete Tong’s dance and electronica mix, the national broadcaster continued their eulogy for longer, before leading into ‘God Save The Queen’.
“We’re interrupting our schedules for the following announcement: Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II,” a pre-recorded message played. “A statement from the palace said, ‘The Queen died peacefully in Balmoral this afternoon.”
“‘The King and the Queen Consort [Camilla] will remain at Balmoral this evening, and will return to London tomorrow’,'” the broadcast conveyed on Thursday.
For the record: BBC Radio 1 Dance did not cut away back to dance music after the announcement.
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) September 8, 2022
Back in April, a similar edited video did the rounds after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, that made it sound like BBC Radio 1 Dance also jumped right back into house hit ‘We Do What We Want’ by Alan Fitzpatrick.
However in reality, it was much of the same story; quickly debunked by fact checkers who pointed out that the message played across all stations in the UK was also followed by the national anthem.
Plans for Her late Majesty The Queen’s death have been encapsulated for years in Operation London Bridge — or Operation Unicorn, in the event she passed in Scotland — including how the message is distributed by the BBC.
“Programmes will stop. Networks will merge. BBC 1, 2, and 4 will be interrupted and revert silently to their respective idents — an exercise class in a village hall, a swan waiting on a pond — before coming together for the news,” explained The Guardian.
“Listeners to Radio 4 and Radio 5 live will hear a specific formulation of words, ‘This is the BBC from London,’ which, intentionally or not, will summon a spirit of national emergency.”